Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Toilet Bowl Restaurant JCY sent us these pictures over the weekend. It's a restaurant in Taiwan with a modern decor and a full-on toilet theme. The thorough implementation includes toilet chairs, urinal sconces, and even commode shaped serving pieces. Probably not the best place to bring a child in p0tty training...A toilet-themed restaurant is proving a huge draw for customers in Taiwan, eager to eat food off plates and bowls shaped like western loo seats and Japanese "squat" toilets.Marton Theme Restaurant, named after the Chinese word "Matong" for toilet, has become a hit in Taiwan's second largest city since its opening in May 2004. Though bathroom decor seems a bizarre way to whet the appetites of diners, the idea has been so successful owner Eric Wang opened a second and bigger branch just seven months later. "We not only sell food but also laughter. The food is just as good as any restaurant but we offer additional fun," says 26-year-old Wang, who gave up a career in banking to launch the business. "Most customers think the more disgusting and exaggerated (the restaurant is), the funnier the dining experience is," he says.The top orders are curry hot pot, curry chicken rice and chocolate ice cream because, well, "they look most like the real thing", Wang says. The price ranges from 150 to 250 Taiwan dollars ($6 - $10) for a meal set including soup and ice cream. Customers, however, flock to Marton Restaurant mainly for its quirky dining wares and interior decor. "This is such a funny and strange restaurant," says patron Chen Bi-fang, while sitting atop a colorful toilet seat - the standard chair at the restaurant. She sits by a table converted from a bathtub with a glass cover while looking at a wall decorated with neon-lit faucets and urinals turned into lamps. Chen first came to the restaurant after seeing it featured on television and has brought nine co-workers along for lunch on her second visit. "I think this is the most special restaurant I've ever been to. The menu also looks good and I'd like to try more next time," says newcomer Cheng Hung-chi, who found out the restaurant over the Internet and took her mother and brother with her.They are exactly the kind of customers owner Wang are counting on - drawn by novelty and who return with friends in a city crowded by a wide variety of restaurants. "Our restaurant is the first and only of its kind in Kaohsiung and that gives us an advantage in the saturated market here. Our major challenge is to lure customers back after the initial fun," he says.Other gimmicky restaurants in Taiwan using themes such as a prison, zombies and even China's Mao Zedong achieved quick success but folded within a few years after the novelty wore off. To make sure his investment wouldn't go down the pan, Wang first tested the water for the toilet food gimmick by peddling ice cream in toilet-shaped cones in street booths four months before opening his restaurant. It was an instant hit as he sold up to 1,000 ice-cream cones daily for $30 dollars each ($1.20) - 5 to 10 dollars higher than a regular one. His idea came from a popular Japanese comic featuring a robot doll fond of eating excrement in ice cream cones. "The success with 'toilet ice cream' was a leap of faith for me to quit the stable but boring banking job and start my business despite strong objections from my family," he says. The young entrepreneur is planning to expand his business to other cities on the island though franchising after adding more items to the menu. "After the curiosity fades, we have to hold on to customers with upgraded food and services," Wang says.

Toilet Bowl Restaurant JCY sent us these pictures over the weekend. It's a restaurant in Taiwan with a modern decor and a full-on toilet theme. The thorough implementation includes toilet chairs, urinal sconces, and even commode shaped serving pieces. Probably not the best place to bring a child in p0tty training...A toilet-themed restaurant is proving a huge draw for customers in Taiwan, eager to eat food off plates and bowls shaped like western loo seats and Japanese "squat" toilets.Marton Theme Restaurant, named after the Chinese word "Matong" for toilet, has become a hit in Taiwan's second largest city since its opening in May 2004. Though bathroom decor seems a bizarre way to whet the appetites of diners, the idea has been so successful owner Eric Wang opened a second and bigger branch just seven months later. "We not only sell food but also laughter. The food is just as good as any restaurant but we offer additional fun," says 26-year-old Wang, who gave up a career in banking to launch the business. "Most customers think the more disgusting and exaggerated (the restaurant is), the funnier the dining experience is," he says.The top orders are curry hot pot, curry chicken rice and chocolate ice cream because, well, "they look most like the real thing", Wang says. The price ranges from 150 to 250 Taiwan dollars ($6 - $10) for a meal set including soup and ice cream. Customers, however, flock to Marton Restaurant mainly for its quirky dining wares and interior decor. "This is such a funny and strange restaurant," says patron Chen Bi-fang, while sitting atop a colorful toilet seat - the standard chair at the restaurant. She sits by a table converted from a bathtub with a glass cover while looking at a wall decorated with neon-lit faucets and urinals turned into lamps. Chen first came to the restaurant after seeing it featured on television and has brought nine co-workers along for lunch on her second visit. "I think this is the most special restaurant I've ever been to. The menu also looks good and I'd like to try more next time," says newcomer Cheng Hung-chi, who found out the restaurant over the Internet and took her mother and brother with her.They are exactly the kind of customers owner Wang are counting on - drawn by novelty and who return with friends in a city crowded by a wide variety of restaurants. "Our restaurant is the first and only of its kind in Kaohsiung and that gives us an advantage in the saturated market here. Our major challenge is to lure customers back after the initial fun," he says.Other gimmicky restaurants in Taiwan using themes such as a prison, zombies and even China's Mao Zedong achieved quick success but folded within a few years after the novelty wore off. To make sure his investment wouldn't go down the pan, Wang first tested the water for the toilet food gimmick by peddling ice cream in toilet-shaped cones in street booths four months before opening his restaurant. It was an instant hit as he sold up to 1,000 ice-cream cones daily for $30 dollars each ($1.20) - 5 to 10 dollars higher than a regular one. His idea came from a popular Japanese comic featuring a robot doll fond of eating excrement in ice cream cones. "The success with 'toilet ice cream' was a leap of faith for me to quit the stable but boring banking job and start my business despite strong objections from my family," he says. The young entrepreneur is planning to expand his business to other cities on the island though franchising after adding more items to the menu. "After the curiosity fades, we have to hold on to customers with upgraded food and services," Wang says.

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wears a conductor's cap while riding in the locomotive of the renovated Trem da Vale (Train of the Valley), during the inauguration of the restorated train line that joins the World Heritage cities of Ouro Preto and Mariana, in the Ouro Preto station of Minas Gerais State May 5, 2006. REUTERS/Washington Alves

Russia's President Vladimir Putin fishes in the Yenisei River in Siberia as he makes a tour together with Prince Albert II of Monaco, August 13, 2007. REUTERS/RIA Novosti/KREMLIN (RUSSIA)

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wears a rain cover during the speech of US President George W. Bush at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, near the southern Dutch city of Maastricht, where around 8,000 U.S. dead from WorldWar II are buried, May, 8, 2005. REUTERS/Michael Kooren JFL/MSF

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Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe (R) and his Equatorial Guinea counterpart Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo arrive for the opening of the Harare Agricultural Show, August 31, 2007. President Robert Mugabe imposed a law on Zimbabwean businesses banning them from raising wages to keep pace with the world's highest inflation. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo (ZIMBABWE)

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko receives a sailor's hat and a miniature ship's wheel at a ceremony in Warsaw, April 11, 2005. Yushchenko floated a plan to build an oil refinery near the Polish border as an alternative to extending a pipeline to carry Caspian crude to Poland and the European Union. REUTERS/Katarina Stoltz

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko (foreground) watches the unloading of nuclear fuel from the third unit of Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power station in the plant's control centre, December 8, 2005. Ukraine closed the Chernobyl plant, the site of theworld's worst civil nuclear accident, in December 2000. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Pictures of the Month December 2005

Former South African President Nelson Mandela wears a cap presented by the cast of the Oscar winning "Tsotsi" at his home in Cape Town March 16, 2006. "Tsotsi" won for Best Foreign Film and is the first South African film to receive the award. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wears a Mexican hat during a rally in Caracas in this November 19, 2005 file photo. Mexican congress on March 22, 2006 said they will investigate possible support of Chavez's government into the campaign of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico front runner presidential candidate for Mexico's leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution. REUTERS/Howard Yanes/Files

Bolivian President Evo Morales, wearing a necklace made with coca leaves, arranges his hat during a visit to coca growers in Caranavi, some 170 km (106 miles) northeast of La Paz, May 20, 2006. Morales visited Caranavi to start on a program of coca plants eradication. REUTERS/Jose Luis Quintana

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva wears a hat made with a Chilean flag during a visit to Santiago's neigborhood, Joao Goulart, August 24, 2004. REUTERS/Lukas Coch REUTERS AS/LSD